Amen.

I live in a very conservative place. Socially and politically, Alberta runs the gamut from right of centre to right wing to right off its rocker. Typically, that means villifying government "interference" in business and extolling the virtues of privatized versus socialized public institutions, such as health care, education, etc.

While slash-and-burn has been a way of life as far back as I can remember during my lifetime, recent events have left me disppointed and sickened to the point of near numbness.

The GOA started by merging all regional health boards into a massive superboard. Then it decided to close down Alberta Hospital--the largest intensive mental institution in the province--and send its residents into "community care" centres, where they could be looked after in a home-like setting. My view on setting a schizophrenic into an unsupervised and unfamliar setting is that shuffling people off the grid doesn't make them disappear. There are some that require 24-hour, live-in care. And if they don't get it, their health fails and they end up picking cans out of the dumpster behind my apartment, mumbling to themselves and being preyed upon by people who recognize them as victims. It's disgusting and utterly irresponsible.

Now, the government is closing long-term care beds across the province. Now, at a time when our population is aging and living longer, we're going to close long-term care beds and fob these people off on their families? For what? So they can suffer in silence or sell off a kidney to get a decent bed at a private clinic? What a joke.

Social services are just that: social. Which means that society as a whole takes responsibility for those who need it. Without judgement. Without antagonism. Without holding a grudge. We live in one of the world's wealthiest places. We're a fucking oil fiefdom, yet seem to feel that putting it into our own pockets will allow us to make society better? How? By "inspiring" the weak, lowly and impoverished to try to become us? Impossible. All it does is increase the disparity between sectors of society, where the haves can surround themselves with shiny toys, hookers and blow, and the others can scrape the remains and hope to live long enough to see the inside of a hospital once they're diagnosed with an illness.

I don't often like Paula Simons's articles. I find her a little soft and puffball on a lot of issues. But I think she was dead right on this one. So kudos to her. Please read.

Gov't idea of 'home' downloads burden of care on relatives (Paula Simons, The Edmonton Journal, September 29, 2009)

"...when we demonize and shutter institutions, instead of improving them, when we make a policy fetish out of moving people into community homes, whether those homes are suitable or not, we put ideology ahead of reality, and financial considerations ahead of humanity."

Amen.